User's Guide - Panama Canal

Ver 1.3— 15/jun/2006

Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Requirements 3
Registration 4
Login 4
Bidding 5
Placing a Bid 7
Confirmation of your Bid 7
Successful Bid 8
Unsuccessful Bid 9
Outbid Notice 9
Closing an Auction 9
Proxy Bid 10
Memorized Auctions 13
Closed Auctions 14
Change Your Password 15
How to install How to Import Panama Canal CA Certificates 16
Logout 20
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Introduction
In recent years the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has implemented several changes to the Transit Reservation
System in order to better serve the needs of our customers, such as vessel swaps, substitutions, change of
transit date, and a recent increase in the number of available slots. However, customers with lower rankings
have expressed concern regarding difficulties in acquiring booking slots, particularly in the 3 rd period, due to the
“weighted ranking” system, which tends to favor customers with higher rankings, leaving them with no option
but to wait their turn to transit on a first come-first served basis.
In order to provide these customers with an alternative, the ACP will offer an additional booking slot through an
auction process. If you require additional information regarding this process, please revise the
MR’S ADVISORY TO SHIPPING No. A-07-2006 at the following link:
http://www.pancanal.com/common/maritime/advisories/index.html
Requirements
• Internet Connection
• Microsoft Windows 98 or above
• Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 5.5 or above
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Registration
If you don’t have the user name, please go to http://auction.pancanal.com/Membership/XUDRegister.asp,
fill the Registration Form. The System will provide a temporary username and password. ACP will verify
your information and will provide you by email a Verified Username and password to log in.
Login
To login, use the Official ACP Verified username and password. Then access the link
http://auction.pancanal.com.
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Bidding
Locate the Auction Home link at the left panel. (1)Then select the Auction Home page link.
In the Premier Auctions section, you will see the Open Auctions. (2)Then Click on the auction Item that
you are interested on to open it.
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Bidding is the most important piece of user functionality in Panama Canal Auction System.
Once you have an active account, you are ready to bid. Simply navigate to the auction you want to bid on by
the category listings or using the search features, and then place your bid.
It is highly recommended that you read ACP regulations regarding terms and conditions for transit slots before
you place your bid. Please note that by bidding, you are legally bind to purchase the transit slot auctioned
if you are the winning bidder.
At auction closing, the highest bid is automatically chosen as the winning bid. ACP Booking procedure will be
in effect for the selected vessel.
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Please see below the open auction screen. The most important fields are:
• Current Bid is the actual higher bid.
• Starting Bid is the opening or base bid when the auction was posted.
• Time Left clock which indicates the remaining time to close the auction.
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Placing a Bid
When user views an auction, there is a box toward the bottom of the detail page that contains information on
bidding. All users will have to log in, and once they have done so, they will be able to place their bid. The bidding
box contains detailed information necessary to place a successful bid.
Confirmation of your Bid
When the user has entered a value into the “Your Bid” box, the user will be taken to a confirmation page
where they can preview the bid they are about to place.
The bid confirmation page will display the current bid that is placed under that user’s name. The user will
then select the “Place Bid” button to submit the bid .
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Successful Bid
When the Bid is successful, you will view this message and the system will send a confirmation message to
your e-mail account :
EMAIL
Thank you for placing a bid at Panama Canal Auction Site! Your bids are greatly
appreciated.
Here are the details of the bid you placed:
Auction Title: TEST 6
Auction ID: 8
Your Bid: $5,000.00
Your Proxy Bid: $6,000.00
Auction Closes On: 3/29/2006 8:07:27 AM
The current bid is now: $5,000.00
See the details of this auction here:
http://auction.pancanal.com/Auction/APViewItem.asp?ID=8
Thanks for participating and good luck with your bidding.
Panama Canal Authority
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Unsuccessful Bid
When the Bid is not successful, the system will send the following message to the user, which describes additional
procedures to be follow.:
Outbid Notice
Every time you are outbid, you will receive a notification via email. Please see example bellow:
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You have been outbid for the auction TEST 6 at http://auction.pancanal.com/
Auction/. The current bid is now at $6,100.00. The auction closes at 3/29/2006
8:07:27 AM. So, if you wish to review the current item, results, or place another
bid, just go to: http://auction.pancanal.com/Auction/APViewItem.asp?ID=8
Panama Canal Authority
http://www.pancanal.com
Closing an Auction
Once an auction closes an email message will be sent to the winning bidder containing general auction
information.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————
The auction for "Transit Slot" has closed. The final bid price was for $12,100.00.
The ACP and should now contact each other for final transit slot reservation
procedures . To view the details of this auction again, you can review it at:
http://auction.pancanal.com/Auction/APViewItem.asp?id=4
The highest bidder is: bidder1
http://auction.pancanal.com/Membership/XUDMessageBase.asp?
cmd=compose&TONAME=bidder1
The auction owner is:
Admintest1 http://auction.pancanal.com/Membership/XUDMessageBase.asp?
cmd=compose&TONAME=admintest1
Please submit your Booking Request Form for the selected vessel thru Booking Normal
Procedures.
Panama Canal Authority
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Proxy Bid
When you place a bid and the amount placed is higher than the next acceptable bid plus the $100 increment
and there is not other higher bid, then the system will setup your bid as Proxy Bid. This amount will
always be kept secret. Whenever someone else places a bid, our auction software will automatically enter
the lowest possible bid for you, up to your maximum bid, until you are the winning bidder.
The auction system will bid on your behalf up to your maximum bid, which is kept secret from other users.
The term for this is proxy bidding. At the end of an auction, if you are the high bidder, you are the winner.
As the winner of the auction, you only pay the lowest possible winning bid, not necessarily your maximum
bid.
When Proxy Bidding is in effect, it can appear as if one bidder has beat another bidder with the same bid
amount. This is normal and occurs when a bidder has a proxy bid in effect and a second bidder comes
along and makes their bid at the exact same amount the current proxy bid is at. Since the proxy bid was
placed earlier, that is the bid that will succeed. For the second bidder to succeed in placing a bid, they must
bid higher than the proxy bid that is in effect.
Successful Proxy Bid: When you place a bid and proxy bid is in effect, the system will notify you in the
screen and by email if the bid is successful, in addition the system will clearly confirm your Proxy Bid.
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Monitoring the Proxy Bid: While the auction is in progress, you can monitoring your bids with the Bid History
screen. In this screen you will see the behavior of all bids, including the Proxy Bid.
You have been Outbid: Your Proxy Bid can be outbid when another bidder place a higher bid , then if you
were the High Bidder, you will receive a notification by email (considering that you email system is working fine)
and in the main screen of the auction in progress, where it indicates that YOU ARE NOT THE CURRENT HIGH
BIDDER ON THIS AUCTION. To keep your bid alive, submit another bid until you receive the Successful Bid
Notification.
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Unsuccessful Proxy Bid: While the auction is in progress and Proxy Bidding is in effect, it can appear as if
one bidder has beat another bidder with the same bid amount. However, keep in mind that the proxy bid
placed earlier will succeed. When you place an unsuccessful bid, you will receive a screen notification, if you
want to outbid the high bidder, please try placing another bid.
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Memorized Auctions
Each user has the option to add open auctions to a list of their own personal Memorized Auctions. By simply
clicking the “Memorize” button displayed on the auction detail page of any auction. This feature is helpful when
a user may be following the progress of an auction and deciding when to bid on the auction.
The listing of Memorized Auctions provides some brief information about the auction as well as a link to the
auctions details. Users can remove auctions from their Memorized Auctions list by simply clicking the “Delete”
button next to the auction they want to remove from their list.
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Closed Auctions
To review closed auctions:
(1) Click on the Auctions Home link in the left panel.
(2) Click on the Transit Slots Category.
(3) Click on the Closed link.
(4) Click on the closed auction that is required to review.
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Change your Password
(1) Click on the Membership Home link at the left panel.
(2) Click on the Change Your Password link.
(3) Write down you Validated Username and current password.
(4) Write down your new password and confirm it.
(5) Click SAVE button to save your new password.
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How to Import Panama Canal CA Certificates
This site (auction.pancanal.com) currently uses a digital certificate so Panama Canal Authority
clients can confirm the authenticity of the site and secure their communication to the site. A security
alert message box might show up on the screen when you access the site, like the ones shown
below:
To avoid these message boxes in future occasions, clients must download and install two certificate files
that will help to confirm the authenticity of the site.
Please download the following files to a folder in your computer:
Panama Canal Root CA Certificate
SHA1 Fingerprint:
DA:A8:A5:90:2E:E2:FE:3F:72:54:E5:CE:32:AC:C2:22:A1:3B:DD:A8
Panama Canal Operational CA1 Certificate
SHA1 Fingerprint:
F1:AA:DC:C6:FC:4A:A7:D0:7A:20:3C:C2:AD:15:B1:C5:1F:59:9F:B4
Instructions to install each certificate file are provided for the following browser:
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Microsoft Internet Explorer
After downloading the Panama Canal Root CA Certificate and Panama Canal Operational CA1
Certificate, open the Internet Explorer browser and select the Tools menu...Internet Options…
1. Select the Content tab, then press the Certificate button.
2. Select the Trusted Root Certification Authorities tab and press the Import… button.
3. The Certificate Import Wizard will appear on the screen, press the Next button.
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4. Browse to the folder where you downloaded the Panama Canal Root CA Certificate, then press the Next
button.
5. Press Next ...Next...Finish. A confirmation window will appear, indicating that a certificate will be installed.
6. Press Yes...Ok.
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7. The Certificate window should still be open. Select the Intermediate Certification Authorities tab.
8. Then press the Import… button.
Repeat steps from 1 to 8 to install the Panama Canal Operational CA1 Certificate.
To confirm that both certificates have been installed successfully, go to the
https://auction.pancanal.com site and double click on the lock image.
The site certificate file will appear, select the Certification Path tab, it should show the complete certificate
chain from the three files that you downloaded (Root CA, Operational CA1, and auction site):
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Logout
(1) Click on the Membership Home link at the left panel.
(2) Then in the footer links click on the LOGOUT link.
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